Mothing event at Glaslyn Nature Reserve 26-08-23.

This was to be our only moorland event of the year and the first time we've been back to Glaslyn since 2015, so we were very hopeful of trapping some nice upland species which are rarely seen at lower levels.

During the day of the event we had many heavy downpours in the west of the county (where Glaslyn is situated), but the weather forecast was for the rain to clear by the evening so it looked as though things were improving.

The events team got onsite by 8:00pm giving plenty of time to get set up, unfortunately the small car park was mostly under water from the earlier rain, so we had to workaround this to get our base camp set up. The sky was mostly cloudy with a few clear spells, but there was a rather chilly breeze which we hoped wouldn't affect the mothing too much.

Glaslyn Nature Reserve - view from the track

At 8:45 the traps were switched on and it wasn't long before our first two species of the evening were potted, a Twin-spot Carpet and an Antler Moth, both mainly upland species. This was followed by a Chevron along with a Flounced Rustic, the two species which turned out to be the most numerous of the night.

 

Chevron

 

Twin-spot Carpet

Next a Neglected Rustic was trapped (another moorland species), this species was definitely on our target list, so it was good to get it, in fact quite a few were seen during the evening. Then a species turned up which took us a while to name, a real upland speciality, the Haworth's Minor - very nice to see

Neglected Rustic

Haworth's Minor

As the evening progressed the chill breeze got through to us all, a comment was made about Scott's last voyage in the Antarctic and Julie had a big blanket around herself, so she somewhat resembled Old Mother Hubbard - but the moths kept in, so we all remained stalwart.

Autumnal Rustic, Ear Moth Agg and Lesser Yellow Underwing were added to the list and these were followed by a rather nice Anomalous, which took a bit of tempting before we could get it to pose for the camera.

Anomalous

As midnight approached (by which time we were all suitable 'chilled out'), most of us decided to call it a night, except for Phil, who decided to stay on for a bit, running just one trap. As we packed away the kit one final species was recorded, a Small Wainscot.

Only one micro moth was recorded (the chill breeze was certainly a factor here, most micro species don't like flying in chilly conditions) a Crambus pascuella.

The following morning Phil dropped me line saying that he had added two species to the list, Dark Sword-grass and another good upland species, the Heath Rustic, giving us a final total of 17 species in all. For a full list of species recorded please click here.

Dark Sword-grass

Heath Rustic

In all, although not ideal weather conditions I feel that we did very well, trapping some good target species and some other species normally associated with upland areas, so well worth braving the chilly breeze for an excellent event.

As always, a big thankyou to all those on the events team who make for the smooth running of all our events and we look forwards to our next event which is planned to be at Powis Castle Saturday 30th. September.

Peter.